Had to become a dad today with gaintfish. Freshman year at a Private school has been more than a little rough on both of us. Today was report card day, not a good evening in the gaintfish household. As of right now I have removed his MAC address from the wireless router. No email or internet untill he can come up with a system for improving his grades. I think he hates having a techi dad and he can't change some of the settings I do. I will reassign his Mac Addrees Saturday night. He has been writing stories and shows real talent at it, but his english grade is one of the ones that made me become a dad! If you all help give him words of wisdom on how important grades are to getting into college it would help alot. I dropped out of college my senior year and have payed for it since. Oh I will go back. NOT! I know alot of you are in school right now and he looks up to alot of you all.

Well, Mr. Vern...we may differ in our views of the relevance of the degree, but I would like to give him some advice about life in general( that you have probably already given him, since you seem like a well-rounded, level-headed, on-top-of-things kind of person). I'm not one of those folks you speak of, but if it's ok I think it's a lesson best learned from someone else's mistake...

The most important thing( as far as grades, career, working life) that I've come to realize in my 37 short years of life....is that I should have done more, while I was young - when I was in junior high and high school - to try and pin down what I wanted to do with my life, instead of coasting through school just looking for the next weekend, the next date, or the next fishing trip to the local ponds. I would have taken more time to actually THINK about what I wanted my life to become - what I wanted to do. Like you, I dropped out of college. I'm now working in a concrete plant as a "manager", or as one of the big wheels put it at our last meeting - we're " so-called managers"...yes, he said that. And he's right - we're just glorified batch men...we push buttons and play secretary most of the time. Not exactly the love of my life, this job. But anyway....

Giantfish....I think from what I've read you're a great guy, and you have alot of fire in ya. Decide now what you want to do the rest of your life, dream big dreams, and then work towards that....it might seem like it's too early, but it's not. There's nothing wrong with being a manager( even a "so-called" one, or a waiter, or a salesperson) but there's something so right about doing WHAT YOU LOVE for a living. Something people like me, that didn't think early enough about the rest of their lives can only imagine.
Chin up, kiddo....and listen to your Dad.....it's obvious he loves you and wants you to be happy and successful.

Very well put there fishlicker, i swung a hammer most of my life, raping beautiful fields & farms to put big ugly structures on them so people could pay more for them than they could afford, they were really nice homes, i just remember the fields before the dozier hit them.
My high school years sound like yours, as long as i could swing a hammer, i had it made, got in with the "big" companies, became a field supt., couldn't go any further because i didn't even think about going to college.
Of course, those guys with the degree knew how to shuffle paper, some of them didn't know which end was up on a 2X4 though.
I passed up a few opportunities to have my own business(handed to me) because all i could think about was my next day in the woods or on the water, i still live for that today, make a meager living, i could do better i know, but i'm happy, something i don't see in a lot of folks that i encounter everyday.
My children are really starting to think about their future, both think it's great to live in the country, have a few horses running the fields, ask one of them to do a chore & you'd think that they just recieved a butt whipping. I told them they had better get a good education so they can hire someone to run that tractor or fix that fence or dig up a septic line if needed because they won't do it on their own & i won't be here for ever to do it.
It takes all walks of life to make this world go around, somethings, i wouldn't even consider doing, that person may go home at night satisfied that they did a good days work & they probably did. I'm sure that everyone of us wishes we had more education, i can't even help my kids with their high school homework, embarrassing but true.
All i wish & hope for them is to be happy with what they're doing, educate themselves more than i did, find something in life that gives them a reason to get up everyday & make the most of that day, maybe, just maybe, they'll have a little more edge on the 'ol man, which would make me very proud.

By studying hard, and doing the utmost of your abilities, you are creating the foundation to success in anything you choose to do. Without the discipline that you will learn by working hard at school, you will find it difficult to have the discipline to succeed in what you choose to do in the future.

Nothing comes easy. While Byron and I love what we have created at LRO, it has come with tremendous hard work. In order to achieve your long term dreams, you must work hard in the here and now, setting the stage for your future.

Your dad wants the best for you. You have dreams and goals. Start now on the road to making those dreams and goals a reality by working as hard at school as you intend to work to fulfill your ambitions.

This is a particularly hard time of the year for me in college because the weather is getting so nice and I have other things that I would rather be doing. However, I know that if I work hard now, I will have a much better time later. There is LOTS more opportunity for someone with plenty of school under their belt, not saying you have to but it definately helps a lot... Stick to those books hard for awhile longer and someday you'll be able to comfortably take time away from everything to go fishin' or do whatever else you love to do in life!!! The nice thing about working hard in school and getting into college is that you can prepare yourself to have a job that you will really enjoy... Good luck with your classes!!!

__________________
"Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.'" Matthew 4:19

It's very hard at your age to see why parents make such a big deal about grades and how you are doing in school. I mean, who cares about sentence structure, grammar, algebra anyhow? Well, I know you enjoy reading about fly fishing. Without good sentence structure and grammar it wouldn't make much sense. I guarantee that John Gierach or James Babb didn't like it either when they were your age but look at what pleasure they bring with just words. Algebra and math might not seem very important either but all those mathemathical expressions you might be struggling with now form the basis for engineering design that have helped produce your video games, the internet that you so enjoy and even this forum and your flyrod.

Did you know that even what kind of fishing trips and what kind of gear you will one day own is to a large degree determined by how good your education is? The difference between a good education and a lousy one can make a huge difference in how much money you will be able to allocate to your fun stuff like fishing. My father had no education and he had to work very hard so he had very little time to go fishing or hunting, had very little money to spend on trips for fishing, couldn't read well enough to even enjoy reading about fishing or hunting, and he missed out on a lot of the nice things in life because he had to work so hard.

Nothing worthwhile is easy. It all takes hard work. Some of that work is boring and some of it will be fun. You need to seize the day...Carpe Diem. The quality of your life is being determined right now. Your father loves you so much that he is willing to help you focus on the right things even if it means that right now it makes you unhappy or maybe even angry at him. You will realize how lucky you are to have such a Father one day. He only wants for you to do your best and be the best that you can be.

Feel free to PM me or email me at db2005@charter.net if you'd like. I teach people how to operate nuclear reactors in our commercial nuclear plants so I know a couple of things about math and science and how to teach you to study and remember. Stay with it. Work hard so that you can play hard, too. Know that my wife and I get such a kick out of reading your posts on this board and we know that you can and will do well if you apply yourself. Good luck, keep studying, and Tight Lines, Giantfish.

Ive been starin at this post trying to write something. Well, here it goes...

Im young so I think I can kinda identify w/ Giantfish a little bit. A couple years ago I remember thinking, "I just wanna go fish and not care about life" Dang, 2 years can really change a thought process, eh? I plan to go to college and get my doctrate now...

Until then, however, Ill be fishin and hikin and..well studying. I refuse to be a wasted life. I wanna get a good job and retire early...thats a good plan. So then I can fish and sit around and tell stories.

Very often I sit down while Im fishing and stare at the river. Theres something about it- rushing down the mountain, over boulders and rocks. It frees me. Im still young.

Just make Giantfish realize that he'll make mistakes. I believe it was Mark Twain that said, "You learn from your mistakes, so make pleanty of them." But also let him know that tomorrow is not promised, cuz it aint. Take him fishing and make him smile.
Like is said a couple years ago I was careless...so maybe a little time is all he needs. Let him have it......and if at all possible buy him a Life Is Good shirt (no this aint a sales pitch) b/c it changed me.

Giantfish:
Get good grades and go to college. Dont just rush through life, take time to stop and look around. Meet people and do things. That way, you'll have plenty of stories to tell to your kids. Your future starts now, dude. Do it right and always remeber LIFE IS GOOD. PM me sometime and let me know whats goin on....

I've read the posts on this thread, and they're all good - all coming from different perspectives. Mine is a bit different, too - I have three young children - all girls, but they're all different. My oldest is 12, and is an excellent student - I hardly have to speak to her concerning schoolwork. My other two are twins - 6 years old. One is a pretty good student, but is struggling a bit with her speech. The other is really struggling with the basics, but not from a lack of intelligence - she just marches to her own drumbeat. Each is different, and I have to handle them differently, but the basic expectations are the same - do your best. That is what my dad expected of me, and he made sure I received extra help and motivation when I wasn't achieving to my potential. Don't squander talent is the basic message.

Now, I could go on and on about higher education; quite frankly, a lot of what is presented in classrooms on campus today, particularly outside of the "hard" sciences, is so much rubbish. However, a college degree, in today's marketplace, is almost a requirement. It's unfortunate, in my opinion - college isn't for everybody, and not everyone can become a CEO, but that's where we find ourselves. So, my advice would be to get those grades up, as quickly as possible. I would also, if I had to do it over again, choose a smaller college, as opposed to a big state university, where one tends to literally become just a number. Also, once you get on campus, be careful not to get swept away by the "college experience". A person can only extend himself so far, and it is easy to get involved in too many things, to the exclusion of academics. I knew people who drank their way out of school. There's something to be said for the concept of the "gap" year, as they do in Europe - a year off between high school and college. I was in ROTC, and I had a lot of friends who were prior-service enlisted; they received an early discharge, under the provision that they go to school and gain a commission via ROTC. Inevitably, these friends of mine were more mature (some were married), and were better students.

Adding an up date on Gaintfish, He had to give me a plan before I would let him back on the Internet. And with a little help he came up with one and he has read these post. He has a new outlook on life. Could be short lived. He is a teenager.
He is a freshman and ran in his first meet today, I think It opened his eyes a little bit. High school Kids a alot faster than grade school. he ran the 1600 (mile give or take) and he realy fought to stay in the pack but just ran out of gas and ended up toward the rear of the pack, but I was really proud of his effort. And a 5 min 52 sec for a freshman is a great time. I still think if i didn't have to worry about breaking my foot again i could take him in a 50 yr dash but being that I am 5'9 and 215# any thing else he would kill me.

This has been an interesting thread to read. I have seen some things that could help with my daughters, and I have also seen many simularities to my youth.I have managed to get an above average job, but not that far above. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about dropping out of college is how much hunting and fishing my bosses do. That extra income sure makes chasing your hobbies easier.